This disclosure relates to the design and development of a new participatory athletic event timing system based on backscattering modulation in the UHF band and to encoding wireless data tags such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags with information corresponding to respective athletic event participants.
Participatory athletic events as used herein refer generally to events involving people who pay an entry fee to participate in an athletic event which attempts to provide accurate course completion times to the participants. In such events, each athlete typically wears a timing chip on his or her body, most commonly on the athlete's ankle or shoe. As typically used, the timing chip uniquely identifies the participant as they cross strategically placed, electronic mats.
Finish-line mats may be used to provide each participant a “gun time” which is the time between the start of the race and the time that the participant crosses the finish-line mats. In addition to mats at the finish line, large races (where it may take a particular participant several minutes to reach the starting line after the official “gun” start of the event) often have mats at the starting line as well so as to provide each participant with a “net” or “chip” time, which is the amount of time that the participant spent between the starting-line and finish-line timing mats. Yet additional mats may be placed along the event course to provide each participant with split times.
Existing chip timing systems generally include a timing chip that carries its own identification number and electronic mats that energize the chip. The chip, which includes electronic circuitry and an energy receiving coil, is typically encased within a glass or plastic inner shell, which is then housed in another plastic outer case. The inner shell is typically weatherproof, which allows for the chip to be worn in various inclement weather conditions. Such chips are referred to as “passive” chips because they do not contain batteries (as do “active” chip designs), and such chips may be reused over and over again.
The chip includes a transponder which is passive and sends no signals until it is placed within the magnetic field created by “energizing” antennas in the timing mats. The magnetic field energizes the coil within the chip, which produces an electric current and powers the chip's transponder. The transponder thereafter sends a signal, typically either in a low frequency (LF) (i.e. under 135 kHz) or high frequency (HF) (i.e. 13.56 MHz), including its own unique identification code, and this signal is captured by the “receive” antennas in the mat, and then collected by a computer.
Existing timing chips typically comprise a Read Only Memory (ROM) type RFID tag having its identification code stored in the RFID tag's ROM. The ID code inside the tag is encoded during the manufacture of the tag and is permanent and unchangeable for the life of the RFID tag. For at least this reason an association process is always required when using ROM based tags, where the internal ID of the ROM based RFID tag must be associated or matched up with an event participant identification number (or racing bib number).
The association process is a very time consuming process in which each athlete's name and assigned identification or bib number is matched with a ROM based RFID tag or “chip.” The association information is needed whenever the chip ID code is needed. For example, when an athlete crosses over a detector antenna (or RFID reader/interrogator), the internal ID code of the chip is recorded by a reader and in a second step, the ID must then be cross-referenced to find the athlete's bib number and name. The cross-referencing information needed for this, however, must first have been compiled in advance of and in preparation for the athletic event. To accomplish this compilation of cross-referencing information, the chips need to be matched up with bib numbers while maintaining the sequential order of both in relation to one another. As will be described in greater detail below, the time and resources needed to compile the cross-referencing information are substantial. As a result, the association process required by ROM based timing chips is a significant cost-driver for participatory athletic events in terms of time, money, human labor, and patience.
FIG. 1 provides an example of a common method of sequencing and associating the ROM based chips in preparation for an athletic event. In this example, a group of chips or tags 134 are first randomly sequenced at one end 104 of a wire 106 or cable or something else that could be run through holes in the packaging of the tags so that the order of the tags is not disturbed while laced through this line. A table-top antenna 120 is used to read the chip ID's one at a time. For example, the next tag 108 taken from the group of tags 134 may be slid across the table-top antenna 120 in a direction 116 from one end 104 of the line 106 to the other end 102. A laptop computer 122 may be used to control the table-top antenna 120 (to provide interrogator/reader functionality when connected 124 with the table-top antenna 120). As the tag 108 passes over the antenna 120, the tag's ID code is captured and stored by the computer 122. Some kind of lookup table, spreadsheet, database, or other cross-referencing document must be created to maintain information for determining which tag ID codes have been associated with which bib numbers.
The order in which the tag ID codes are stored must be maintained by the computer 122, and the sequential order of the tags as they are processed must be maintained as well. For instance, all the tags on the line 106 must be maintained in the same sequential order so that they may be matched up (either in real time as the tags are read and sequenced in the computer 122 or at a later time) with a group of participant identification numbers or bib numbers 136. The first three tags 110, 112, 114 to be sequenced, for example, are stored in order in the computer 122 and associated with the first three bib numbers 126, 128, 130 in the group of bib numbers 136. The next tag ID code stored in sequence is then matched up with (or associated with) the next bib number in the stack of bib numbers 136, and this is repeated until the last ordered bib number 132 in the group of bib numbers 136 is associated with a tag sequenced on the line 106.
Any disruption in the sequence in either the tags along the line 106 or in the stack of bib numbers 136 may cause a mismatch between the bib number and the ID code of the chip. Once detected, considerable efforts must be made by event organizers and event managers to reprocess the tags and bib numbers, which basically requires repeating the entire association process described above for matching up specific tags (with their particular ID codes) and bib numbers. If undetected, an incorrect time could get assigned to some or all event finishers.
Tedious processes such as the above are repeated for millions of athletes every year, and there are thousands of events in North America that utilize this or a similar method of associating RFID tags to participant bib numbers every year. Not only is there a significant amount of human labor required for sequencing and associating the ROM based timing chips before an event, additional labor is required for collecting and processing of the chips after the event for their reuse in subsequent events.
Improved methods and systems are therefore needed to address these and other problems with existing participatory event timing. Prior to the present inventor's discoveries and the implementations of systems and methods using his improvements, such improved methods and systems were unknown.